The Court has decided: in its currently known form, platform-based food delivery is not an employment relationship, but according to the labor law expert, a safety net is needed

By: Trademagazin Date: 2024. 01. 24. 11:34

The Kúria did not classify platform-based, self-employed food delivery as an employment relationship in a matter that also concerns the public, so in Hungary today those who perform so-called platform work fall out of the protection provided by labor law. According to the expert of the Kapolyi Law Office, it is reasonable that not all forms of employment are necessarily employment relationships, but at the same time, it would be necessary to create an intermediate category that manages the inequality between dominant large companies and individual entrepreneurs, or a legal safety net.

In its December ruling, the Court did not classify food delivery as an employment relationship. According to the Supreme Court forum, the broad right of instruction and control necessary for the employment relationship did not exist, since, for example, in the case brought before the court, the courier could refuse the given work, and there was no hierarchical relationship and no mutual dependence. (Details of the Court’s decision can be read in the “Background: why the Court decided this way” section.) According to Dr. Zsófia Somlóvári, an expert in labor law at the Kapolyi Law Office, the decision made in the case is particularly important because the Hungarian labor courts used to be able to to reclassify a hidden employment relationship, however, after the Court’s decision, this cannot be done in the future in the event of a similar situation.